🚨21-year-old Palestinian Political Prisoner Held Without Trial or Charge Martyred in Israeli Occupation's Ofer Prison

16 September 2026

Ramallah, occupied Palestine — 21-year-old Palestinian political prisoner Moataz al-Atrash, held without trial or charge since October 5, 2025, has been martyred in the Israeli occupation's Ofer Prison near Ramallah. 

According to his family and his lawyers, Moataz had not suffered from any health problems or illnesses prior to his arrest. The Commission of Detainees' Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society hold occupation authorities fully responsible for the martyrdom of Moataz.

The Commission of Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society stated that the martyrdom of Moataz al-Atrash falls within the genocidal policies that the occupation authorities continue to practice against Palestinian political prisoners and detainees, in the context of the ongoing crime of genocide against the Palestinian people, with prisons and detention centers constituting one of its principal arenas.

With the martyrdom of Moataz, the number of identified Palestinian political prisoners and detainees who were killed or died, since the start of the genocide in the occupied Gaza Strip, rises to 92 people. The actual number is higher, amid the continuing Israeli crime of enforced disappearance involving dozens of detainees, with no reliable information about their whereabouts or conditions.

Palestinian prisoners are experiencing, at this stage, the most violent period behind bars since the occupation of 1967. According to data documented by prisoners’ institutions, the number of identified prisoners who were martyred behind bars or in detention since then has reached 329 people.

The accumulated evidence, the institutions stated, shows that Palestinian prisoners and detainees are facing systematic destruction through a series of documented violations, including torture, starvation, physical and sexual assaults, medical abuses, deprivation of necessary healthcare, and the spread of infectious diseases—foremost among them scabies—alongside policies of isolation, deprivation, and the stripping away of basic rights, under conditions lacking even the minimum requirements for a humane life.

In this context, the martyrdom of Moataz, at the prime  age of 21, inside the prison further reveals the scale of the risks surrounding the fate of thousands of prisoners and detainees held under harsh conditions, particularly in the absence of effective international monitoring of detention facilities and the continued denial of access to human rights and humanitarian organizations to carry out their role in protecting prisoners and monitoring their conditions, foremost among them the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The Commission and the PPS renewed their call on the international community and the international human rights system to take serious and effective measures to halt the ongoing violations against Palestinian prisoners and detainees, hold those responsible accountable, and prevent these violations from continuing to be treated as isolated incidents or exceptions.

They also called for an end to the state of impunity that continues to prevent accountability for those responsible for crimes committed against prisoners and the Palestinian people, and for concrete international steps to protect prisoners and detainees, guarantee their fundamental rights, and ensure respect for international law, including provisions prohibiting torture and cruel and degrading treatment and guaranteeing detainees’ rights to life, physical safety, and healthcare.

The two institutions stressed that the continued killing of additional prisoners and detainees inside prisons, in the absence of accountability and prosecution, constitute a direct test of the international system’s commitment to enforcing international law and protecting human life. They said this requires turning documentation and condemnation into concrete measures that put an end to these violations and ensure that those responsible do not escape punishment.

***
🔴 Update on the number of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons as of the start of September 2026

▪️These figures are based on information gathered by Palestinian prisoners’ institutions and what is published by the Israeli occupation prison authorities.

📌 The number of Palestinian political prisoners and detainees held in Israeli occupation prisons has reached approximately 9,350 people. 

📌 Among them are 90 female prisoners.

📌 The number of imprisoned children is more than 350, held in Megiddo and Ofer prisons.

📌 The number of administrative detainees- Palestinians arrested from the occupied West bank and are held without trial or charge- stands at 3,176.

📌 The number of detainees held under the “unlawful combatants”law, stands at 1,393 people. These are Palestinians arrested from the occupied Gaza Strip and are held without trial or charge. 

▪️ It should be noted that this figure does not include all detainees from Gaza held in military-run camps and classified under this category. It also includes Arab detainees from Lebanon and Syria.